Find a body of water in the Lowcountry, and at this time of year, you are likely to find something with feathers floating on it.

It might be a coot, a gallinule, a loon, a grebe or a cormorant. Then again, it just might be a duck.

Unlike our woodland songbirds that forage in bushes and trees, ducks hang out in full view of anyone with the time and inclination to watch them. They do have a tendency to retreat, as far from land as possible, so a spotting scope that brings images from 20 to 60 times closer is an invaluable tool for duck study.

The first question you might be asking is, “How do I know it’s a duck?”

As a family, ducks have several distinct physical characteristics.

For starters, all ducks have wide, webbed feet, great for paddling and diving. This feature can be less than helpful for the birdwatcher attempting to identify a swimming bird, as the subject can rarely be persuaded to roll over and float on its back while waving its feet in the air.

Do not despair! Some species of ducks, known as dabblers, feed in shallow water by turning bottoms-up.

They submerge their heads to forage for tasty plant matter and invertebrates beneath the surface, thus leaving their rumps in the air. They paddle with their feet to sustain the activity, allowing the canny watcher to glimpse the telltale webs.

Occasionally, a duck will emerge from the water for a spot of grooming or to feed in the grass, flashing its toes distinctly joined by slings of flesh.

Another more obvious duck feature is the broad, flattened bill, great for scooping up plants and invertebrates. The bill may have an obvious “nail tooth” at the end, good for rooting around to unearth tasty tidbits.

It may also include a comb-like structure on the side to strain out the water while retaining the food.

Naturally, just to complicate matters, there are exceptions to the broad, flat bill feature. Mergansers are fish-eating ducks with long, serrated bills, suitable for grasping slippery fish.

As for body shape, ducks will not generally make it on the modeling circuit. Most can be described as compact, even plump. This shape is perfect for streamlined swimming. A duck’s plumage is so well constructed that it completely protects the layers of insulating down that keep the duck warm when foraging for food in chilly water.

Ducks that breed in diverse areas up north find their way to the Lowcountry for the winter. Male ducks scout the hens each season for a suitable mate, then follow her to her home territory — be it a prairie pothole in North Dakota or a bit of Alaskan tundra.

Once she settles in to lay her eggs, her mate says, “Nice knowing you,” and heads off to hang with his buddies. She raises the young alone while he looks for a protected area where he will molt all his flight feathers, reverting — for the off-season — to an “eclipse” plumage similar to that of the female.

Throughout the centuries, humans have valued ducks, both as a source of food and as a form of recreation. In 1934, as one response to alarming drops in the country’s waterfowl populations, the Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp was created.

Anyone planning to hunt migratory waterfowl was required to purchase this license. Ninety-eight cents of every dollar generated by the purchase of these Duck Stamps is used to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Duck hunters rightly complain that they have been the ones carrying the load.

I encourage all the bird lovers among us to buy a Duck Stamp. Visit an area Post Office or sporting goods store and invest a mere $15 in conserving the wetlands that nurture both ducks and humans.

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